No more sewing, for now.

All of my sewing supplies and machines are now in a shipping container, and there they will remain for about a month, if the container tracking estimates hold. For various reasons, I decided to let the turquoise coat (and its shoulder pads that I'd been planning to work on) get packed too. That means this won't be much of a sewing blog for the time being. In the next few days, it could be a knitting blog, but only about the one pullover I've been working on... not too exciting. So there will be either a fairly light or fairly off-topic schedule, or both, until further notice. That, or I'll take up hand sewing.

... and Simplicity 1540 revisited

Well, I decided I wasn't quite done with this after all. I had two tabs I'd started to make, thinking I might use them for button tabs on the pockets. They were from exactly the same pattern piece that you're meant to use on the middle of the back, for the purely-decorative tab there.

Then I decided I didn't really want any major closures on the pockets, because they'd just get in the way. (I may still put snaps behind the non-functional buttons that I added.)

I pretty much forgot about the tabs for a while, but I figured I should get any remaining machine sewing done today. At that point I decided I should try making the tabs into epaulets, especially since that could give me a chance to show off yet another different size of the matched buttons I have. So I bagged out the tabs, clipped, turned, pressed, topstitched, then opened enough of the sleeve seam to put them in and sew back closed. The smallest size of button did indeed look best. I just sewed this through all layers, since I was not about to make matching hand-worked buttonholes in any size, not with the thread I used for the other ones.

I'm pretty happy with them, but now that they're on I do think the coat would look better with shoulder pads. Those can be done entirely by hand; I'll probably make them of several layers of self-fabric, since the coat is unlined and ready-made ones wouldn't match. I'd like to say I'll be posting a picture tomorrow, but let's be honest, the movers are coming Wednesday, so any post whatsoever may be too much.

Simplicity 1540 done

More or less, anyway. It should get a final press, but I might or might not do that right away. If it's going with me, yes; if it's going in the shipping container, no doubt it's going to need a press when it comes back out anyway.

My dress form's still in a bizarre state where nothing hangs right on it. I'm about to shrink it down to its minimum size, not fiddle with it, so:

My main conclusions about this:

1. Never do hand-worked buttonholes with regular thread, not even doubled, and probably not quadrupled either. You'll deeply regret it before you've even finished the first one, and once you've cut the first one open there's nothing to do but finish them all. It'll take forever and the needle eye may wear through the thread. If you can't get matching buttonhole twist or other very heavy thread, just do them some other way. I did try cording these but it didn't work all that well. I suppose I could do another go-round with real buttonhole twist, which I've since been able to find.
2. This pattern is meant for fleece-like fabrics. A lot of the synthetic fleece readily available in the U.S. would be a bit too drapey for the design, I imagine, and the lightweight fusible the pattern recommends for the collar and sleeve bands might not work at all on fabrics that melt at low temperatures. Boiled wool and some of the coarser synthetic fleece types should be OK.
3. It's nice that the pattern gives you proper upper and under collar pieces, but the sizes might not be quite different enough depending on your fabric's turn of cloth.
4. I took in the side seams quite a bit, but it still seems rather loose-fitting. Probably not my best look.
5. Because of the roundness of my buttons, I had to make the buttonholes longer than I'd have liked; a deeper underlap might have been better. Obviously the pattern's not intended for thick buttons in the first place, though, because there's supposed to be one right in the middle of the back, where anything protruding would be rather awkward.

BTW, I did in fact decide to topstitch the front edges, and I added non-functional buttons to the pockets to show off the fact that I have these buttons in a few sizes. I did have to choose carefully because they clearly have some sort of past: they are not all quite the same color.

giant cat checkpoint

pic.twitter.com/VjLqdqJ9bC

Buckram pocket template

No doubt you've seen this before if you've seen enough books/blogs/tutorials, but it's not a bad idea to make a template for your patch pockets. Here I used buckram, mainly because it's crisp enough, thin, and I have a lot on hand at the moment. It'll ripple a bit when steamed, and it may become sticky due to the sizing, so keep that in mind when deciding if it's appropriate for your particular fabric.

The template is slightly smaller than the pattern without the seam allowances or the fold-down facing; it's looking bigger than the pocket itself in this picture, even though it isn't actually (camera angle? color? I don't really know why.) Anyway, I put it on the wrong side of the pocket and pressed all the edges in around it. This fabric is quite bulky so there's distinctly less than the 5/8" seam allowance pressed in here, which is just as well because that makes it easier to shape the curves. Afterward I felled down all those edges by hand, so that this was not visible from the outside. This both keeps the seam allowance in place and will reduce lint formation as the pocket is used — another way to address that would be to both edgestitch and topstitch, such that the cut edge is between the two rows of stitching, but I wanted only edgestitching in this case.

Like RTW?

I've been putting off doing anything more on my boiled wool coat. There isn't, strictly speaking, that much more to do; the only major thing is the pockets. But I want to add fusible interfacing to the hem, and that always feels like a big obstacle: I have to cut more out. Given that someone was coming to look at the apartment, I had another a reason not to want to make the whole cutting mess.

The reason I do want to interface is it's usually done in RTW,* and it seems to keep the hem looking decent (not ripply or stretched out) for a lot longer. I can see just from doing a light press-up of the hem that it'll be worth it on this fabric.

I've also just noticed that the flats for this pattern don't show any topstitching on the front edges below the collar. I haven't decided whether to respect that or not. I did understitch, so that may be enough, especially if I do attach the facing edges to the princess seams inside.

At any rate, I don't have that much more time to use my machine before it gets packed up, so if nothing else, I plan on trying to get all the machine sewing done in the next couple of days.

* For coats, at least; not for knits or shirts, say. Not that I do things purely because RTW does them; I often pick out more interesting non-plastic buttons, for example, though I'm now trying not to make them stand out too much as too-nice-for-the-fabric.

Yet another marking tool

I already have several chalk pencils, the (Clover?) chalk wheels (the cylindrical ones, not the triangular one), triangular tailor's chalk, and one of the water-soluble blue pens. The other day, I also got this set of chalk markers (NAYY). I haven't used it enough to really do a solid comparison to everything else, but here are my general impressions of the different tools I have.

• The chalk pencils (usually called something like "dressmaker's pencil" and under various brand names; they look like regular pencils, more or less) make reasonably visible marks, but work best on a firm fabric that won't move as you're trying to mark it. They can be sharpened to make the line narrow, although in certain colors the lead tends to break a lot. I've seen them in pink, yellow, blue, and white.
• The chalk wheels make the narrowest marks, and (other than the pen) work the best (or maybe I should say least badly) on fabrics that try to move as you're marking them. The marks don't always show up that well, especially on light fabrics, as the chalk only comes in light colors. There are various types of these; I'm not sure what the name of mine is, since I've long since thrown out the packaging. But they're cylindrical and I have four of them: red (really pink), yellow, blue, and white, with the chalk a pale pastel version of each.
• The tailor's chalk does a good job of making marks that don't wear off before you want them to, even on textured fabrics. It's fairly blunt/wide, though, and like most anything else non-rolling, can push the fabric along as you try to mark. The colors are a little more saturated than the chalk wheels', though still light-ish. To the best of my knowledge, the triangular chalk is fairly generic and should be fairly widely available (if not in every chain store).
• The water-soluble pen works well, though I wouldn't want to use it on anything not washable, and I'd be afraid to heat-set marks in. I think these are pretty easy to find.
• The Signet Color markers are kind of similar to the chalk pencils overall, but a bit softer and more "spreadable" (although they still are definitely chalky and won't necessarily mark highly textured fabrics all that well). They also come in more colors than any of the other tools I've used. You get a pen-like holder and a set of different "leads" that you can put into it, half of them white and half of them in assorted colors, some rather bright. I think they are made by a German company and I don't know how readily available they are worldwide. So I also bought the one set of refills that the store had; we'll see how long they last.
• I also have the usual transfer paper, which comes in more intense colors than most of the items above (except the Signet Color). With the chalk-based transfer paper, the chalk can dust off onto the fabric a bit, and the tracing wheel isn't really appropriate for delicate fabrics. The wax-based transfer paper can make a real mess if you're not careful. I don't have any of it any more, but I used to keep it all inside plastic bags to keep the wax from getting everywhere. It's very effective in making visible marks, shall we say.
• I have a Hera marker, which of course only works on fabric that will hold a crease, and of course the mark also goes away as soon as you iron it. The obvious advantage is you aren't adding any chalk or wax or ink to your fabric, so there's nothing to worry about removing later in that sense.

Stuff I don't have at the moment:

• Evaporating tailor's chalk. This is cool but I don't know of any way to get it other than from New York.
• Wax chalk. I'd be careful with this, especially any of the colors other than white. I hear it doesn't really go away; it just melts into the fabric.
• Air-soluble markers (which are usually purple, no?) I've heard lots of stories of the marks evaporating before people finish their project; no doubt that would happen to me too.

And then there are always tailor's tacks. They don't give you an unbroken line, but they do work on textured, delicate, and stretch fabrics; they can be taken out when you want; and they show up. I don't think they take that much longer than most of the other methods (aside from notching and punch holes) but I can understand that they aren't necessarily that much fun. This is one place I use up my bizarre thread colors, BTW.

A few silks

I don't buy silks all that often, because I haven't tended to wear them that much. Still, for variety, I acquired a few more:

This one's a georgette; of course it has a lovely drape, but it'll be intimidating to cut and sew.











This was labeled as 100% silk, but I believe it must have some elastane content. I detect a certain amount of crosswise stretch. It's semi-sheer; might be a double georgette.

Generally I never wear yellow; it's usually impossible to find a shade that is flattering. But I thought this was an interesting color, though it probably would have been better if it were dustier and greener (it is greener than it looks on my screen, but it is maybe still a bit too saturated). I may use it as an overlay or lining, if nothing else.


This one's a broadcloth (or maybe a lighter-weight Thai silk), light to medium weight, and a little bit crisp. It's cross-dyed in a light blue and a green-navy, giving an overall teal effect. It should be easier to sew than the others, and I like how it has less sheen than, say, charmeuse, without being completely matte.

Joséphine exhibition

So, part of what I did the other day was to go see the Joséphine exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris). It included quite a variety of items: documents, paintings, sculpture, furniture, tableware, jewelry, and clothing, including a court dress with lots of beaded embroidery. This was not as tiny as some of the 19th century clothes I've seen; if I remember correctly, somewhere in the exhibition it said that she was 1.63m tall. The dresses were impressive, but there were only two; I don't know if it's that no more survive or could be brought to this exhibition, or just that antique clothing is probably one of the more fragile and difficult things to put on display.

My favorite items were an Egyptian-inspired set of dishes, blue and gold with hieroglyph patterns; the Canova statue of Cupid and Psyche (the one here is the standing one); Joséphine's harp; and a rather over-the-top chair with swans for armrests. The exhibition is meant to show something of Joséphine's personality. I'm not sure that came across to me as well as it could have if I'd known a bit more beforehand, but I did get an impression of the sorts of things she was interested in, which seemed about as expansive as reasonably possible, given her time and social position: fashion, furniture, jewelry, music, growing roses, and introducing plants from other parts of the world. Also present were Alexandre de Beauharnais' trunk, several original documents relating to the most important events of Joséphine's life, and many portraits.

The exhibition's on until June 29. A few of the items can be seen here, or in this video (both in French only), on the museum site.

OT: I was asked for information or directions at least 3 times while I was in Paris. It seems like I only rarely get asked these things when I'm in a place where I have any idea of the answer, but as soon as I go someplace where I don't.... Anyway, I guess it's probably just a result of being in a city where there are enough tourists that it becomes likely to happen.

A four-language fashion dictionary

I found the Langenscheidt Schiele & Schön Praxiswörterbuch Textil und Mode a while ago. While I haven't read through all of it, I would say it's more oriented toward visible design elements of clothing than it is toward construction techniques or fabrics. Interfacing, interlining, canvas, and hair canvas are nowhere to be found, for example. Maybe they are in the longer version or the app (see below).

About two-thirds of the book has English words or expressions followed by definitions, then the German, French, and Italian versions with their respective definitions; looking up by the other languages is a two-step process (you're referred to the number of the English version).

Some of the terms strike me as very odd, like "ear bandeau" for what I'd probably call an earwarmer or headband. As a whole the dictionary's probably meant to be UK English first and foremost, with American versions of things only given afterward, so that might explain some of that (though nothing else is mentioned for "ear bandeau" and I have no idea whether that is a normal British term).

For me, probably the most useful aspect of it is the Italian, where I know almost nothing. It can be useful for reading La Mia Boutique magazines.

The book is apparently a shorter version of an illustrated fashion dictionary which I have not seen and which seems to have been replaced by a "Garment & Fashion Dictionary" app. That might be the most cost-effective way to get it in many parts of the world, if you have the requisite iThing to run it on.

Buttonhole twist

Gütermann R753, NAYY. I haven't tried it yet. It's not the only kind, but it's what's here. I didn't know the 30m spools existed; evidently they do but they may not come in as many colors. The others are 10m.

The color numbers do seem to correspond to the polyester color chart. They'll look different at least in sheen due to the different materials; I haven't actually compared any of these yet. Still, as this thread might only be available by mail/online order to most people, knowing you can at least settle for the same color numbers as for the polyester thread, and get reasonably close, might be a major help.

I have seen these in the usual "tailoring" colors and a few pastels; any sort of purple seems to be absent.

Tomorrow

I'm off to find some buttonhole twist and possibly other things. I'll leave it at that as my connection's just been acting up; more later.

A very short roundup on sleeves

One of these days I'd like to do a whole post on the problem of big biceps and small armholes. But until then, a couple of somewhat-related links:

New Vintage Lady on sleeve cap shapes and fit — this is partly about what type of sleeve cap (of the ones most popular in the 30s and 40s, but still relevant to modern sleeves) looks flattering, relating that to armhole diameter/torso shape/shoulder width

Ikatbag's kleenex box demo on (among other things) cap height vs. sleeve width given a fixed armhole size

As far as books, this is definitely not a comprehensive list, but off the top of my head Liechty et al.'s Fitting & Pattern Alteration: A Multi-Method Approach covers torso shape and how it affects armhole diameter in the flat pattern. So do the Müller & Sohn books (the relevant ones seem OOP at time of writing, except the English-translation Metric Patternmaking for Jackets & Coats).

More on the coat

I've done nothing that looks like much, just reshaped the side seams as I'd planned to, lengthened the princess darts, and started blind-catchstitching some seam allowances down; with no lining and the fairly long length, I think there's a good chance they'll flap around otherwise.

I also pressed up the hem allowance. Here the instructions didn't seem terribly clear (though maybe I missed something by reading only the steps that seemed relevant); I think you could easily end up thinking 5/8" was intended, if you didn't look at the pattern pieces.

Well, I didn't look at the pattern pieces, but I thought 5/8" would be terribly skimpy; 1 1/2" looked about right, so I pressed that up instead. Only later did I look at the pattern pieces and see that 1 1/2" was in fact the intended allowance.

Anyway, I think the fit is about right (or as good as it can get without undoing more than I care to; a length alteration for shoulder blades-with-respect-to-back-armholes probably would have helped) so what remains is to tack down all those seams, finish the hem, put on the pockets, give the collar a good steam, and maybe make up some sort of inside pocket and/or shoulder pads.

Pocket placement on Simplicity 1540

I'm working on placing the pockets on this coat. (Well, I also took in the side seams, but I think I'm going to have to reverse at least some of that. It had been bigger than necessary in the hips, but it had a nice slight flare that's now lacking, and I think it looks kind of sad-sack without it.)

On the right of the photo, the pockets are just a touch below where the pattern intends them to be: the upper edge is meant to be in line with the top of the lowest button. This felt excessively high. I can see why they did it, though. Views C and D are much shorter; this is where the pocket would have to be for it not to extend into (or past!) the hem. On a short jacket, you do what you have to do.

I didn't notice anyone complaining about the placement on Patternreview, but then nobody made the coat in this length.

To place the pocket on the left of the photo, I put a coat with reasonably-placed pockets on my form, and marked with pins on the form the top and bottom of the hand entry (these were near-vertical welt pockets, so not entirely comparable, but I had to make do) as well as the bottom of the pocket bag. The bottom of this patch pocket is about where the bottom of the RTW pocket bag was. It feels much better. I'm not sure which version I think looks better, but I'm going to go with something more like the one on the left; I think the one on the right will just feel too awkward, unnecessarily so given that the coat is long enough to support a lower placement. This does mean I have to lengthen the princess darts for sure.

On a side note, I've been reading Passformfehler, which has possibly some of the best coverage of balance issues (in fitting) that I've seen. I might go into more detail on that later, but this is just to say I think part of the reason things don't hang right on my dress form could be that it has a very flat upper back/very little shoulder blade shape. Not that I'm about to pad it out right before I move, but it'll be something to consider.

Sleeve bands on Simplicity 1540

I put the sleeve bands on Simplicity 1540. Some construction changes I made:

• I believe the instructions would have you interface the entire band. That would be unnecessarily stiff, IMO. I interfaced a little more than half the width, so that the outer layer, the fold, and a small amount of the inner layer is interfaced.
• The outside of the band is seamed to the sleeve. The inside is held on by the topstitching. I pressed the sleeve/band seam open, folded the band in half to match its raw edge with that of the pressed-up sleeve seam allowance, and temporarily whipstitched the edges together to prevent them from shifting during the topstitching.

I'm glad I narrowed the bands to the smallest size; they would have fit even had they been a couple inches narrower, although I think they're an acceptable coat width at this size. The length is fine, which suggests to me that others might find it short. Given the fabric I used, this is not a warm enough coat that I'd be likely to wear it with gloves. If that were the case, I'd want the sleeves longer. They do bunch up more than I'd really like, though not more than I'd expect of one-piece unlined sleeves.

Now that that's done, I'm considering the fit again. The side seams could probably stand to be taken in in the waist and hip area, possibly all the way down to the hem. I'm also considering adding shoulder pads, though that's iffy since the coat is unlined (I'd have to make them of self-fabric).

I'm no longer so sure that the princess darts need to be extended downward, but I am very sure that the pockets need to be placed lower. My marks were raised by the significant waist-length shortening I did, but as my arms evidently aren't at all short as far as the pattern's concerned, it's unsurprising that those marks are now much too high.

Simplicity 1540: Topstitching the princess seams

I worked on my boiled wool coat a little more today. (In terms of the changed construction order I posted earlier, I was at step 7, having bypassed step 6.) In case I haven't mentioned it, I took in the front and back princess seams 1/2" at the shoulder line, tapering to nothing at the back and the front notches — it conveniently worked out that that was about how far down the alteration was needed. I decided the shoulder seams themselves didn't need alteration, so I trimmed my altered princess seams down, then closed the shoulder seams the rest of the way. Then I topstitched each princess seam in one step, continuously right over the shoulder seam. This way there was no issue with matching both the princess seamlines and the topstitching lines, which would've been necessary if I'd done the shoulder seams afterward. The downside is you then have a lot more fabric to deal with and potentially scrunch in the harp of your machine. I try to remember clear all the random things off the sewing table before doing something like this, because they'll otherwise very likely end up on the floor.

After that, I set in the sleeves. I don't know if the instructions tell you to ease them — probably — but I've never found it necessary with boiled wool, as long as the sleeve is against the feed dogs. So here it is on the form:

A couple of points here:

• This form has gone through multiple moves (over, I don't know, more than 10 years?) and really has seen better days. I think it might have become asymmetrical, and it's developed a tendency to automatically shift downward on its stand over time (I do move it from room to room a lot, which I'm sure it doesn't appreciate). The fabric covering is kind of clingy, which has its upsides and downsides: things don't fall off right away if I'm draping, but it's also hard to get anything that's finished put on straight. The form also has narrower shoulders and a hollower chest than I do, and I really need to readjust the hip size.... In any case, I believe it's an older edition of a My Double. I have no idea how things have changed since, and I can't compare it to any other adjustable forms; the only other things I've used are standard-sized Wolfs (and a couple other brands I can't recall).
• There's a fair amount of ease in this pattern. I think that's just as well, given that it's unlined.
• I'm pretty happy with the sleeve fit. They could be better if they were two-piece, but they're about as good as one-piece get, I think.
• Several reviewers said the sleeves were too wide. I did narrow the bands, but not the bicep width, as any extra there is much appreciated.
• The sleeves will have bands added on, making them longer. I do need to check the length, but it might be fine... unlined sleeves, you know, ride up with wear anyway.
• I swear my inter-button distance isn't uneven, though it looks it in this photo.
• I may need to lengthen the princess darts. They were substantially shortened in my waist-length alteration, but maybe they should not have been. I might actually do the facing topstitching and maybe even the hem before I decide on that. I don't want to take too much out and have the fronts pitch apart, but it'll be easier to judge once the facing edge is flattened out more permanently.

blah

I've been busy with moving stuff, so I did nothing on my coat today. I did knit, but that's 6 stitches per inch so it'll be a while before it looks like much.
I did sort out about 5 other coats that I may get rid of (wrong size, etc.) which will help make room, assuming I don't have a big closet at whatever my destination is.

New Buttericks

Summer 2014 Buttericks have been posted: among other things, there are quite a lot of dresses and voluminous tops. Nothing struck me as anything I have to have — most of them are just not right for my shape.

I did find Gertie's swimsuit pattern interesting. It's meant to be cut on the crossgrain (!) presumably in an attempt to translate vintage-style structure to modern fabrics. I wonder how well that works. (I do actually have a couple of vintage swimsuit patterns for wovens, although I haven't dared try them.) And this might sound flip, but this dress looks like it would make a good nightgown.

May plans

Happy May Day.

I cleaned and oiled my machines today, but otherwise they had the day off. The sewing machine really could stand to be serviced, BTW; I'm waiting to get back to a 120V area for that.

If all goes as planned, I'm expecting to have less than three weeks before everything goes into a shipping container. I can't decide whether I should sit on my hands or sew like mad. Mostly I'm doing the former right now, but I really would like to get at least the turquoise boiled wool coat done and in one piece. After that, I'm thinking maybe linen trousers, but that might be a terrible idea.

Either way, toward the end of the month I will become limited to knitting and/or hand-sewing, depending on what goes in the Ark of Things Not Packed, and then, for some days (weeks?) I will most likely not be blogging at all. That could easily continue well into June, depending on what sort of connectivity I have (or don't).

Anyway, for now, the fit of the coat looks promising; I think I'll be able to do the princess-seam topstitching and the shoulder seams, and leave any changes to the (non-topstitched) side seams and princess darts.